Bastille Day Macon-style

Bonsoir from a hot and sunny Macon!  We've been at Macon PdP for the weekend which was the perfect location to share the French celebration of Bastille Day so without further ado, here's a precis of the last couple of days:

Friday 12 July - Chalon sur Saone to Macon
A warm and sunny morning and "Reward" set off at 8am to get a good start on one of our longest mileage days yet.  It was a lovely day's cruise: hardly any traffic on the river and a light breeze which makes for ideal cruising conditions and is what makes boating so pleasurable.  We whizzed along at 7 knots per hour with to include a 2.5 knot current under us which made the journey that much easier and quicker.  There was only one lock to contend with - nice to see the large locks which can easily accomodate several boats and barges.

Along the way we saw a couple of things of interest: the owner of the boat below gave us a cheery wave from the shore as we passed.  It's a boat covered in tarpaulins and suspended from trees to protect it from the wash of passing river traffic - it's a winner in our view - coming to an IKEA near you soon!

Robinson-Crusoe style des-res!

We also saw a couple of nudist swimmers near the lock - I wondered why Skipper was hogging the binocs!

We'd heard varying reports on Macon PdP - it had a bad repuation in recent years but it's under new management and is fully redeveloped, extended and renewed to provide nearly 400 berths and lovely facilities.  "Splodge" caught up with us just as we were approaching Macon - they left a couple of hours after us as they wanted to refuel.  So, reunited once again, the consensus was that we were happy to stay here for a couple of nights and move on after Bastille Day.

Locks: 1 (203)
Miles: 41 (551)

Saturday 13 July & Sunday 14 July - Macon
Now that we're out of the canals we decided to clean our boats - "Splodge" had picked up a few scratches in the canals and our fenders and topsides were pretty grotty.

Nautical SOS team tending to minor casualty

After two weeks consistently hot and sunny weather but without wanting to tempt fate, First Mate decided to clean our all-weather gear in readiness to stow it for the summer - hurrah!

The ever-sociable Alan & Jackie decided to take their boat to Macon Quay for Bastille Day fireworks tonight and invited us, as well as fellow cruisers Robert and Carol from "Flightline" aboard for supper and drinks.  The helpful Capitainerie recommended we leave early to get a spot so at 6pm we set off for the short trip to the town quay where there was one space left and the French welcoming committee helped us shoe-horn "Splodge" in - you can see from the photo how close the boat behind us was.

Crews from Splodge, Reward and Flightline at Macon Quay

We went ashore for the parade - a celebration of municipal service-providers and French military prowess (tee-hee!)  The stars of the evening were an Italian platoon with elaborate feathered hats - like Muscateers - and they trumpeted their way through the street at a canter - we've never seen anything like it - only in France!  We returned to "Splodge" for a lovely mixed platter supper and were in poll position for the fabulous fireworks display later that evening.  We we had a truly brilliant evening and the fireworks display was stunning - photos can never do it justice but this is the best I could do:

Bastille Day Fireworks at Macon Quay

Our return journey to the marina was interesting - in total darkness - no street lights around here - just tree-lined riverbanks.  The boats which had surrounded us at the quay had already pulled up their anchors and disappeared - along with their nav lights - so with the skill of three Skippers and a torch we returned safely to our mooring at about 2am.  Needless to say a quiet Sunday followed and, because pretty much everything shuts in France on Bastille Day, we went ashore for an ice cream at the brilliant "Flunch" - an American style burger and ice cream diner - yum!

Tomorrow brings another long passage and an early start - Macon to Lyon - 50+ miles - so we're off to bed for an early night!  Over for now!